This time, the book signing was held at 5PM, and the crowd was mostly kids and their moms. It made for a different kind of signing than I’m used to. If you’re going to be a picture book author, you’ve gotta tolerate low-level chaos.

Mark related a real-life scenario that helped inspire his new book:

And the kids (and adults) enjoyed recognizing it in the finished product:

And of course we all LOVE to watch an artist create. Do you find that when artists are drawing or painting, they usually have to stop talking?

Listen to these questions. Mostly, Mark tells the kids the same things he’d tell adults.

If you couldn’t hear that last part, Mark said illustrator Don Wood told him artists usually draw characters that look like themselves. And he said it while Mark was drawing a picture of Ike the dog!

Having an audience of mostly rugrats didn’t faze Mark:

In fact, I don’t think there’s much that fazes Mark:

Because he’s kind of a Renaissance guy. He writes. He illustrates. He’s written a middle grade, too. He’s broken a lot of rules:

And what makes him smile? Yup. Same thing that makes every writer smile.

Ye Gods, Freckles McYoungest is going to murderlize me. Let the record show she is SEVENTEEN.

Technical difficulties, my little doves, kept me from posting on ye olde blogge yesterday. And today, for that matter. I will make this short and oh-so sweet.

I found Flip Footage from our last KSCBWI workshop, in March. Sandy Asher did a humdinger of a job speaking on picture books. Sandy is a jack-of-all trades, as you will find out in this brief clip. (Also, you will see she is soft-spoken. Press thine ear unto your speakers.)

First she tells us the secret of success in the publishing business:

Now, Sandy has chosen to eschew this advice. (Bless you. Handkerchief?) But I think I’m going to more or less employ it.

I went to this picture book workshop not because I write picture books–(A-HAHAHAHAHA!)–oh! my side–but because I want to be a better critiquer for my group. I took copious notes and really tried to wrap my head around what makes a great picture book. And then…

then…

Sandy dropped the words that made the heavens open.

She shared the advice that Sue Alexander had shared with her, when Sandy was just starting out.

Picture books have to appeal to the littlest listeners,

older kids and the adults who have to read the damn

things over and over and over again.

There it is, in one sentence. The litmus test to know whether or not you have produced a great picture book.

Like this:

Depending on your perspective, I was either duped, shamed, or lured under false pretenses into participating in the NaPiBoWriWee. Write seven picture books in seven days. It’s a great idea started by a fab gal, and I have absolutely no business participating.

Because this is what you get, when a YA writer turns her talents on the picture book genre:

BABY ANTS

Ants march along the top of my window sill,

Following the trail of sweet crystals I laid for them this morning.

I lower my eye to their level

Watch them feel the granules

Choose the right ones for their babies

Then march off on their tiny feet

Imagine I can hear them stomp, stomp, stomp down the wall,

Along the oaken baseboard

Under the shaggy carpet

Around the blaring t.v. while my dumb brother watches

Mud wrestling.

What industrious ant parents!

They trudge, trudge, trudge down the porch steps,

Across the grass

Into the hole under the old oak tree

And feed their adorable baby ants

Sweet crystals from my window sill.

Also known as arsenic.

Don’t worry, parents. As soon as this week is over, it’s back to the dark land of YA I shall go. Hanging out in picture book country makes my teeth hurt. And I am vastly underqualified, because picture book writing is definitely THE MOST DIFFICULT GENRE OF ALL CHILDREN’S LITERATURE.

COME LET ME FEED YOU MY BLOG

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